College admission scandal parents didn't realize how big the scheme was until they were all sitting in jail together and someone brought up the ringleader's name

• Dozens of parents were arrested in the college admissions scandal on March 12, 2019, and several ended up together in the same Los Angeles jail cell.
• What happened in the cell was described in "Unacceptable: Privilege, Deceit & the Making of the College Admissions Scandal," a new book from Wall Street Journal reporters Melissa Korn and Jennifer Levitz.
• According to Korn and Levitz, many of the parents weren't sure why they had been arrested, until a coach who had also been arrested said: "Do you all know Rick Singer?"
• "Mouths fell open. A sense of understanding spread, followed by dread. Together the men moaned as a chorus: 'F---!'" according to the writers.

On the morning of March 12, 2019, the FBI arrested 33 parents, accusing them of cheating the college admissions process to get their kids into prestigious schools.

The parents didn't realize how big the scheme was until a group of them were all sitting in a jail cell together and someone brought up the ringleader's name: Rick Singer.

The arrests were described in "Unacceptable: Privilege, Deceit & the Making of the College Admissions Scandal," a new book from Wall Street Journal reporters Melissa Korn and Jennifer Levitz.

Korn and Levitz specifically described the arrests in Los Angeles, where several parents and coaches indicted in the college admissions scandal lived.

Several of the people arrested in the LA area were taken to a local jail, so they were split into two cells — one for women and one for men.

The men's cell included Mossimo Giannulli, whose wife, Lori Loughlin was about to be arrested while on location in Canada. It also included Beverly Hills developer Robert Flaxman, entrepreneur Devin Sloane, periodontist Homayoun Zadeh, and two soccer coaches, identified as "a onetime star from USC and one from the University of California, Los Angeles."

Korn and Levitz described the scene:

"Perhaps some knew why they were there, but others weren't sure. And no one quite understood what they all had in common.

"Until finally one of the coaches piped up: 'Do you all know Rick Singer?'

"Mouths fell open. A sense of understanding spread, followed by dread. Together the men moaned as a chorus: 'F---!'

"Oh yeah, they knew Rick Singer."

Singer was the ringleader of the scheme. At the time of arrests, prosecutors said parents paid him tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars to guarantee their children would be admitted into elite colleges, like the University of Southern California, Georgetown University, and Stanford University. Some parents are accused of paying over a million dollars.

Singer was one of the first people in the scheme to plead guilty. He's been cooperating with prosecutors, helping secure guilty verdicts for dozens of others.

More than 50 people have since been charged in the college admissions scandal, including parents, who are accused of paying bribes, and college athletic coaches who are accused of accepting bribes.

• Read more:
• The son of a parent convicted in the college admissions scandal says he 'didn't care' where he went to school and his dad was 'way too invested'
• Here's everyone who has been sentenced in the college admissions scandal so far
• Here's the full list of people charged in the college admissions cheating scandal, and who has pleaded guilty so far
• Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli resigned from the elite Bel-Air Country Club amid internal debate over the couple's 'irreparable reputational harm' to the club